#anyway ppl recognize that paps doesn't kill anyone regardless of playthrough

[hahanoiwont]

I have had Papyrus Thoughts. I have put them below the cut

been lookin through all the early snowdin scenes bc we're going to be lifting some dialogue hardcore...and Sans has this one line about Papyrus, "don't worry, he's not dangerous. even if he tries to be." what does that MEAN, SIR. is it that Papyrus has a lot of traps and puzzles that could be dangerous, but wouldn't use them to kill anybody? is it that Papyrus's ability to knock people out without killing them isn't the product of great control but just that he's literally incapable of killing people? does Sans straight up not know about Papyrus's combat abilities?? (incidentally that last one would explain why he's not there for the Papyrus battle--if he figures "oh my bro can't fight like at all" then he'd have no reason to expect a battle to take place, and it would be congruent with how he frankly kind of babies Papyrus, but also how would he not know)

anyway as interesting as any of those interpretations would be, i'm gonna say that Sans completely, hilariously underestimates his brother's capacity for violence. Papyrus has a couple of lines that imply that he's not necessarily a pacifist, or at least not opposed to enacting violence (even accounting for cultural differences, beating someone unconscious is in fact a violent act). And even without using all of his potential, he's obviously a strong fighter. but, according to Sans, "not dangerous." I mean he could be lying, but tbh it's way funnier if Sans '1 hit and he dies' 'will not fight come hell or high water' Undertale simply does not recognize that his extremely cool bro could possibly harm another person. Papyrus? Never!

This could possibly be true by a mix of Sans's impression that Papyrus is more ignorant than he actually is, combined with Sans's own values and his assumption that Papyrus shares them. I will argue to my grave that Sans is a pacifist (if a real-life person refused to fight unless they were not only the next victim of an actual genocide but also facing down the end of the world, I think we would still count them as a pacifist, actually! also the geno confrontation is much more narratively interesting if Sans is setting aside his own ideals to totally, viciously oppose them--from 0 to 100 on the violence scale because he has been backed into a corner and he has exactly one way to fight back so he's damned well going to give it everything he has); and Sans so clearly admires and loves Papyrus that a few things might be assumed--such as Papyrus being totally harmless, because Sans is pretty much harmless, and why would he assume his brother is more dangerous than he is? Besides this, Sans's 1 HP comes into consideration--even if Papyrus sees no issue with making friends by inflicting massive damage on one another, Sans would be an obvious exception, because if he roughhoused with Papyrus like that he would die instantly. So the only attacks Sans has faced from Papyrus have absolutely no intent to hit, much less harm. So, yeah, I do think that Sans wouldn't really think of Papyrus as someone capable of causing harm, because Sans has never seen it from him, and he's left to assume that Papyrus is like that all of the time.

so like. I am imagining that someone could tell Sans after a pacifist run, "hey your brother beat Frisk unconscious and put them in your garage to sleep it off." And Sans would straight up not believe them. like. "papyrus? nah, you're yanking my chain. what kind of guy do you think my brother is?"

Anyway I forgot where I was going with this, except that I think that Papyrus is absolutely willing to do a hit, and Sans would not believe this fact if anyone, including Papyrus, tried to tell him. Which then has the potential to set up the fun and interesting dynamic of, "My brother has horrible stats and doesn't even try to defend himself! I have to protect him so that no one takes advantage of this."/"my brother is a little naive, and he'd never hurt anyone, no matter what. i have to protect him so that no one takes advantage of this." because Sans and Papyrus are each other's opposites in so many ways that they can both think they're covering for each other's glaring weak spots, and they can both be totally correct about this. and totally wrong.

#undertale #writing tag #anyway ppl recognize that paps doesn't kill anyone regardless of playthrough #and that is a neat fact #but murder is not the end all be all of violence #like. if u look at the text you get when monsters are reduced to low health but not killed #it's not like they're cool and fine with it #they react much like a human beaten half to death would #papyrus is legit cool with just. beating someone up #he will begin to feel bad after he has beaten them unconscious twice #whereas sans will not make even a token attack if a single monster is spared #like even if he hates their guts he will let frisk/chara pass #idk i also think it's just funnier if sans if a pacifist and could literally witness papyrus kill a man like #eh i'm sure it was a misunderstanding. now excuse me #i need to go tell papyrus a painfully obvious lie so that he doesn't realize this misunderstanding has happened #how sad that that guy accidentally ran into a suspiciously bone shaped knife several times #i will do absolutely no further investigation of this